Charlie Crist on Environment

Republican

1992: Elected to State Senate on pro-environment message

On November 3, 1992, I was elected to the Florida Senate. I defeated a longtime Democratic senator named Helen Gordon Davis, though that didn't exactly make me a giant killer.
The district lines had been redrawn after the 1990 census, and Helen's strength was Tampa. The new district included more of Republican-leaning St. Petersburg.
My three-pronged message--pro-education, pro-environment, anti-crime--seemed to connect with the voters. And spending time on
Connie Mack's staff had given me the valuable opportunity to interact with thousands of civic leaders, business people, and regular folks--not just around St. Petersburg but across the state.

Asked BP to pay $65M for tourism promotion, after oil spill

By the time the Deepwater Horizon well was capped, nearly 5 million barrels of oil had spilled. By comparison, the 1989 wreck of the Exxon Valdez released about 262,000 barrels.

Some of that gloppy black oil washed onto Pensacola Beach--not as much as
some experts had worried about but enough to wreck the Panhandle's heavy summer tourist season.

Three separate times, I declared a state of emergency for large sections of Florida's Gulf Coast. Families were canceling their reservations and going to
East Coast beaches or the mountains instead. It was a real punch in the gut to Florida's tourism economy. I asked the BP chairman to help pay for an advertising campaign telling potential visitors that the Gulf Coast was inviting and safe. The oil giant
coughed up $25 million in tourism-promotion grants, plus an additional $15 million each for AL, MS, and LA. I wasn't shy about asking, and BP seemed willing to pay. The scope of the long-term environmental damage remained a matter of intense debate.

Let state-run insurance carrier compete in private market

A series of devastating storms in Florida over the last few years had nearly wiped out the private property insurance market in the state, and a few companies that were still offering property insurance were charging exorbitant rates.
It was the biggest political issue in Florida .Just weeks after I was sworn in as speaker, the new governor, Charlie Crist, called the legislature into special session to pass his proposal to resolve the crisis. It was a purely political remedy.
He wanted to go to war with the insurance companies. He wanted to give the state-run insurance carrier the authority to compete in the private insurance market. He knew in the short term the move would be met with widespread approval from the Floridians
who had become very angry with insurance companies. The longer-term consequences of his solution, however: If the public carrier was unable to pay claims after another devastating storm or series of storms, taxpayers would have to cover the shortfall.

Appropriate $100 million to continue to restore Everglades

I am proposing that we continue the state’s commitment to restoring Everglades by appropriating 100 million dollars for that purpose, as well as 40 million to clean up the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers and 50 million for Lake Okeechobee.
It is worth noting that the dramatic rise in our insurance premiums did not occur without cause. It occurred in large part because of an equally dramatic rise in the number and intensity of hurricanes that battered our state in recent years.